Time After Time
by Mavynn
Summary: They lost the war. Harry was killed and Voldemort won. Ron was executed as a war criminal. Hermione, now known as the guerrilla fighter Du Katu is determined to use a souped up time turner to set things straight by saving the one man who can save them all. Sirius Black. But can she save herself from him knowing if she succeeds this version of her will no longer exist?
1. Prologue

**Because I am feeling in a writing mood. I have had this story kicking around for awhile and i don't want to lose it because I didn't write it down.**

 **Prologue**

Katu scratched at the scar beneath her eyepatch, a left over trophy from a duel with Theodore Nott. She got the better end of the deal. She lost an eye, he lost his life. She kept her hair cut shorter now than she had when she was still known as Hermione Granger. A name she had not used in so long she was not even sure if she would still remember to respond to it.

The Great War was over. All that was left of the Order was Dumbledore's Army and even they were dwindling fast. When Voldemort killed Harry in the Malfoy's dungeons that had been the beginning of the end. They had believed there was no way he could stand up to all three of them. They believed it so strongly they were prepared to stay and die at the hands of his followers after they killed him that night. What they were not prepared was for Voldemort himself to walk in and laugh just before hitting Harry with an avada kadavera. She, Ron and Luna had escaped with the help of Dobby, but the war effort was doomed from that moment on.

And now she was here to watch the last of her two best friends be executed as a war criminal.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley you stand accused of acting against the Dark Lords best interests, a capital offense. You stand accused of aiding and abetting known war criminal Harry Potter, a capital offense …" the list read on and on each one a capital offense. "How do you plead?" through broken teeth and a fractured jaw Ron finally spat out "I plead for you to bugger off."

"And how does counsel for the defense wish to plead?"

"We plead guilty your honor and beg for the Dark Lord's merciful justice in granting my client a speedy and painless execution." It was always the same. No trial. Charges read, counsel for the defense pleads guilty begs for a speedy and painless execution and that was it. The one time the defense counsel forgot to add speedy and painless to her plea was ugly... the execution was public and took three days.

"Granted, and may the Dark Lord have mercy on your soul. Avada kadavera."

And that was it. The light and joy that was Ronald Weasley was gone. The one who had once been the rock of their group was no more.

Katu pulled the cloak over her head and left. She knew what she had to do and it was finally time to finish this.

But first she had to get her group to safety and explain her plans to their leader who was not inclined to listen to what he considered her hair brained schemed, fully half of which failed dramatically

"Katu, this is crazy, even for you, and I never thought I would say that, I have seen you do some pretty extreme things." Neville threw his hands up pacing back and forth in their latest safe house. His wife Hannah watched the two of them concerned but she knew better than to interfere in their argument. "Even assuming the damned thing works, and you DON'T know it will no matter what you say, how will you avoid seeing yourself? How do you know he even knows all the answers you are looking for? You could very well just end up dead."

"What other options do we have Cherub?" she asked, using his code name earned because he looked so innocent people never took him for the assassin he was until it was too late. Far too late. "I have lost everything and everyone to this war and if this works we get all of that back!"

"Not everyone" he said pointedly.

"No, not everyone, I still have you two and Luna and Ginny, but for how long? Everyday our numbers grow smaller. Neville please" she switched back to his real name now "don't let's fight on this. It will work. I have tested it on short jumps. I know it will work. I have to try. If anything looks dicey I will come straight back and we will try something else."

He sighed "Anything out of the ordinary at all Hermione. I am still in charge here. That is a direct order." She stood up and saluted him "Sir yes sir" and then kissed him on the cheek and hugged him to her tightly." She then went and hugged Hannah placing a hand on her gently rounded belly "Take care of my two favorite boys Hannah."

Hannah smiled her gentle motherly smile that won everyone over the moment they saw her "Be safe Hermione, and no offense, but I hope you are successful and I never see you again. I will pray every for your safety and that this works."

With one last look at the two people who had come to mean the world to her she turned and walked out of the burned out building.


	2. At the Start

Chapter 1

There was a reason she had chosen Godric Hollow as their safe house location this time. It was exactly where in space she needed to be. Now she just needed it to be in the right time. Making the proper adjustments on her modified time turner Katu felt the world shift around her until the house behind her was whole and sound. She could see a young toddler in the window being doted on by his two parents. Even without his scar she recognized him and her chest tightened. She wished she could do this differently and save Lily and James. But now was not the time for sentimentality. If she did that Voldemort would attack elsewhere and she would lose control of the timeline.

She watched with a heavy heart as who could only be Voldemort approached the house. She was shocked a bit. She had only ever seen him after his resurrection. She had not expected him to be an ordinary, although very handsome looking wizard. She contemplated making an attack here, assassinating him now and ending it for them all, but she knew how fool hardy that would be. She was no duelist and had no great arsenal of deadly spells. She was a spy and great at infiltration, but Cherub was the fighter. She wished he was by her side now, but if they failed to kill him they would die and everything would be lost. So she watched.

She watched as James was killed trying to block the stairs to shield his wife and son.

She watched as Lily let out a terrified scream and then made no more sound.

She watched as much to her surprise Snape showed up and went inside. She moved suddenly. If Snape was there to finish Harry off she had to stop him now!

When she got in she was even further surprised to see Snape weeping and cradling Lily Potter as though his heart were breaking. He looked up at her and pulled his wand. She showed both arms to show she was no death eater. "Please Professor, I need your help now" she shook his arm to get his attention "Professor!"

"I am no Professor of anything girl, you have me mistaken." He said through his tears and broken heart.

"I am sorry, I never knew exactly what date you started, but please listen to me, can you get a hold of Professor Dumbledore? Now, please Mr. Snape. Harry needs you." This seemed to wake him up as he looked over at Harry still crying in his bed. "Yes, yes of course. Who are you?"

She began to summon her Patronus to send to Sirius "I am a member of the Order sir. Just not the exact same one you know." After she sent her Patronus to Sirius she went to pick up Harry. "Oh Harry, she whispered. I wish you could tell me what we are supposed to do now. I was never supposed to do any of this without you. But I am so very glad to see you." He tugged at her hair and snuggled in to her chest still crying. "I am going to change your nappy now, and I am not very good at it so you must hold still."

She had no sooner sorted Harry out than she heard the motorbike pull up and footsteps. The broken scream when Sirius found his best friends body brought fresh tears to both her and Harry. The footsteps resumed and Sirius burst in, his wand at her heart "Step away from my godson you bitch or I will make it painful before you die."

Katu put Harry down gently and stepped away. "Professor… I mean Mr. Snape, please take my wand, you will find it in my right hip holster." Sirius stared at her suspiciously. He was going to demand her wand anyway, but was unprepared to have her hand it over. "Keep your hands where I can see them and walk down the stairs, Severus bring Harry."

As they were descending the stairs Katu was both relieved and very, very angry to see Professor Dumbledore. All of the secrets, all of the pain they all came rushing back. "Neither can live while the other survives" he knew Harry had to die, but he kept pretending they had a chance. She both loved and hated this wizard. Admired and feared him. But right now he was all she had.

The weight of it caused her to sag and Sirius grabbed her to keep her from falling down the stairs. She was suddenly struck by how handsome he was. She used to have a bit of a school crush on him, but this Sirius … she looked away.

For his part Sirius was used to having that effect on women and just sneered. The little bitch murdered his best friends and now thought she was going to seduce him into helping her escape? All he wanted to do was snap her neck.

Dumbledore was kneeling beside James' body. He reached down and closed his eyes. "Lily?" he asked, Sirius just shook his head "But at least I caught the little bitch who killed them."

Snape spoke up for the first time "It wasn't her. I don't know who she is or why she is here Sirius, but the Dark Lord killed Lily. This woman sent her Patronus to summon you. She claims to be a member of the Order." Dumbledore looked at her closely. Not many would make that claim. Sirius looked unconvinced but he stopped gripping her arm quite as tightly. He looked at Dumbledore "Professor?"

Dumbledore looked at Katu "Is this a quick explanation?"

"I am afraid not Professor. But they are going to blame Sirius for this. He was their secret keeper as far as anyone knew they did not know it had been changed and…"  
Sirius shook her and shouted "How did YOU know this you fucking spy?"

"I am a spy, but one for the Order, and that is not how I know. The new secret keeper, Peter, he told Voldemort where to find Harry." Sirius and Snape flinched at the name. She snapped at them "Oh do stop that. Fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself, isn't that correct professor?"

Dumbledore nodded carefully "You almost sound like one of my students…"

"I am or rather was, or to be more precise," she held up the time turner "will be."

No one noticed except Katu when Sirius had left. She knew where he had gone and that she had to let him. They needed to stick to the time line as closely as possible.

"Hagrid is here sir" she told Dumbledore "Sirius gave him his motorbike so Hagrid could take Harry wherever you ask."

"And you will return with me to Hogwarts." It was not a question, but Katu agreed anyway, it was what she wanted. "I promise to explain everything there Professor" she walked in to the kitchen unable to look down at the body of James Potter any longer. "But first we need to get to Sirius." Snape snorted "He could be anywhere, off on a drunk I am sure."

Katu shook her head no "He went to kill Peter Pettigrew. He won't succeed but they will still find him guilty."

She had been listening to Hagrid cooing to Harry about how he would always be there to proect him now and he wouldn't let anything bad happen to him ever again. She'd had a strong desire to go out and bury her face in Hagrid's big coat and just stay there for a good long cry. When she shook herself free she found Dumbledore staring at her.

Dumbledore looked at her thoughtfully "Changing that is a very dangerous idea young lady."

"I have no desire to change it that is after all why I let him leave. But I do have a plan. First we need to get to him."

"Jailed you say?" asked Dumbledore, she nodded "Then he is safe for a time, we will return to Hogwarts as soon as Hagrid takes Harry to his relations you may explain your plans to me."

And so she did. Who she was and how she got there. About how she had altered her time turner to make the sort of jumps she had in mind.

"Where exactly did you get your hands on a time turner?"

She looked at him surprised, and then remembered this was the past "You gave it to me sir, when I wanted to take extra classes. The idea to alter it came from one of the books I found in your office." Thankfully he did not ask her why he had not been there to stop her.

"And what do you intend to do now that you are in our time?"

"We needed help then. Help others were in no position to give us." She held up a hand to him "You did your best, sir, but we needed someone with access to the Black estates and vaults. We needed Sirius with us. Only we didn't know that. And he was a convicted murderer who everyone believed was trying to kill Harry, no one would have given us access to him even if we did know. I intend to make several short jumps with Sirius through time. We can aid our younger selves by opening vaults and providing other small assistances along the way without interfering drastically in the timeline. To do that I need to keep Sirius out of Azkaban."

"Again, a very dangerous notion, Katu. That does drastically interfere with the time line."

"Not if we polyjuice another condemned criminal to take his place who would normally have died during this time. I have several names."

Snape finally spoke up "Not to look a young gift horse in the mouth sir, but we have no evidence that any of what she is saying is the truth."

Hermione thought for a moment "I actually have several ways to prove my story, if not my intentions. First, Dumbledore is going to try to convince you to take the Potion Master position again. You don't want it because you want to teach Defense Against the dark Arts."

Snape looked surprised "This is why you kept calling me Professor"

"Yes, I knew you took the position but not if it was before or after the attack. And then there is this" she pulled out the cloak of invisibility she had taken from Harry's room before leaving. Dumbledore nodded.

"And finally: The one with the power the vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him born as the seventh moon dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh moon dies."

Neither man spoke for a long time. "Where did you hear that" Snape finally hissed at her "Right here, in this room. When it was too late. When we did not have enough information. When Harry was dead."

Dumbledore slumped back in his chair. "And you believe had you known this earlier it would have saved Harry?"

"No, I am no longer a sentimentalist Professor. I believe we would have defeated Voldemort."

"And what information did you need girl" Snape growled at her. Hermione turned her dead eye stare one him and he said nothing else.

"This has to be for your ears alone Professor, at least for now. Then you must vow to put the memories away and not look at them again until the right time"

Dumbledore nodded and Snape left the room.

When he did, Hermione told him all about the horcuxes and why Harry's death before they were destroyed doomed them all. They could no longer locate the damned things and Voldemort was truly immortal.

Dumbledore was quiet for a long time before he removed the memories he said "I am sorry I did not share this."

"Apologies are best given to those with time for self indulgence. Repay your debt to Harry by helping me fix this."


	3. Grimauld Place

**Chapter 2**

Getting Sirius out of jail turned out to be the easy part. Keeping him out was proving a challenge.

"You cannot go after Peter Pettigrew, Sirius" she was shouting at him this time.

They were at Grimauld place. The last time she had seen headquarters it had been filled with death eaters and was being burned to the ground.

"You want to try to stop me?"

"If I have to but I would really prefer that we don't engage him at all. At least not now."

"And why the hell not?"

"Because we don't even know where he is" she sure as hell wasn't going to tell him she knew exactly where Peter was. "And furthermore" she continued when he looked like he wanted to argue about it some more, we need to make plans. Harry needs you Sirius."

Sirius just glared at her. She may not have killed Lily and James but she sure as hell hadn't helped either. He knew he was being unfair but he couldn't seem to help himself.

"Don't pretend you give a damned about my godson now, you sure as hell didn't care when his father was murdered trying to keep that monster away from him. You sure as hell didn't care when his mother was murdered right in front of him. You sentenced him to a life without his parents, so don't pretend you care now."

The only thing she could think was, damned I guess I do have some sentimentality left after all. Every word he spoke was a condemnation. Every single one of them a guilt she now had to carry. She could hear Lily screaming, Harry crying for his mother. Not just in this time, but every single time he had ever called out for her. She knew it was her fault. She could hear Ron's defiant plea for the judge to bugger off. Neville's demand that if something went wrong she was to come back immediately.

She didn't realize she spoke out loud when she said "Does 'going wrong' include passing out in the home of a man who wants to murder me, Cherub?" Just before the world went dark.

Sometime later, she had no idea how long, she woke up on a couch with her boots pulled off and Sirius looking at her solemnly. She blinked a few times then took up staring at ceilings as a new hobby.

"When was the last time you slept? Or ate? Or bathed?"

"No idea. Maybe... two days before I came here. Maybe less, maybe more. You go through a lot of pepper up potions in my line of work. And there was something I had to witness… why?"

"Because you passed out and slept for twelve hours. You scared the shit out of me, I thought you were going to die and leave me a body to clean up."

"I will endeavor to die in a place where you are not responsible for my remains." She said without rancor.

"Hey that was a joke" he said softly.

"You don't have to pretend to be friendly with me. I don't require it. Sentiments are for those with the luxury of self indulgence. Besides you have made your opinion of me and my actions quite clear."

"Hey, that was .. shit … I didn't mean…"

She waved her hand dismissively "You were right. You don't know Harry. He is... was… will be, whatever, my best friend. Like my brother even. And I just watched his parents get murdered without batting an eye. Even knowing how many times he has cried for his mother, I did it anyway."

He looked at her with that same solemn expression. There is a bath in the next room. I kept it warm just in case. There are clothes in there too. I have no idea if they will fit, or even whose they were. I will make something to eat and then we can talk."

Katu nodded and mechanically got up and walked to the bathroom. The bathwater was dark grey when she finished she guessed it had been sometime since she had taken proper care of herself. She dried her hair with her wand and put on the clothes Sirius had left. They fit with a few alterations. Comfortable boots, dark jeans and a white button up blouse. He had even added a leather jacket on top. Without stopping to consider any of the reasons why she added the barest touch of makeup before she went down.

Sirius was frying eggs and bacon. He even had a pot of tea on. He waved at her to sit down and then served up the meal. Neither spoke while they ate. Sirius had been startled by her transformation. The grungy woman who glared daggers at him turned out to be a stunning woman with a pixieish face who filled out a pair of jeans like no one he had ever seen. And the eye pat h gave her a sexy dangerous look.

When they were finished eating he took their tea mugs into the sitting room and made sure they were comfortable before asking "Why did you let James and Lily die."

"I am not much of a fighter" she motioned towards her eye patch "I am a scout an infiltrator and I do research. Cherub does the fighting. You probably know his parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom."

"Well, well, little Neville grows up to be quite the warrior you say?"

"No, he's an assassin, we call him Cherub because he looks completely innocent which allows him to get close to his target."

"I take it Katu is probably not your actual name then?"

"No, it is a code name, and it is Du Katu in communications 'The Cat'."

"Because of your stealth."

"No because I owned a half kneazel cat named crookshanks that could sniff out bad people like nothing I have ever seen."

"So..not much of a fighter…"

"I thought about trying to take him down myself. But I don't really know any deadly spells and I am not a very good duelist. And if I get killed everything I have done was for nothing."

"What about sending for help?"

"He would have just gone after them later. One he decides you're dead, that's it. Only one person ever escaped. And I watched Voldemort kill him."

"Harry…?"

"Yes. Years later. So I made the call."

"It sounds like you did what you had to." Sirius didn't like it but he knew James and Lily would have agreed.

"I always do."

"Tell me everything I need to know."

They spent all night talking. She told him every detail, including how he died at the Department of Mysteries.

"Bugger."

"Yeah, but not this time. I need you alive. We are going to fix this. I am never going to bear witness again."

"You said that earlier, what do you mean?"

"Once a week they take war criminals out and publicly execute them. There is no trial just an attorney to plea guilty for you and beg for a quick painless death.

"Merlin!"

"The day I came here I watched my other best friend, Ronald Weasley, executed."

"Molly and Arthur's baby?!"

"He was an adult at the time of his execution, but yes. His last words when they asked him how he wanted to plea were 'I plea for you to bugger off' I was never more proud. I decided then and there if I was going to give this time travel idea a try I needed to do it immediately."

"At least you guys got the spells to work right for this kind of jump. Whoever figured that out must have made a killing."

Katu just looked down at her mug of tea.

"Give me a break. You are telling me this is the same type of time turner it has always been?"

"Not at all. I souped it up."

"You soup up cars, motorbikes, not time turners!"

"Yeah, well I got the term from you so I suppose you would know."

"Tell me you at least tested it and retested it a BUNCH of times?"

"Define a bunch"

"Before you passed out you said something, does passing out in the home of a man who wants to murder me count as something bad? Why?"

"Cherub made me promise if something looked dicey I would jump back immediately and we would find another way,"

"Smart guy."

"What's life without risk?"

"Is that something you picked up doing research?"

"Sort of, it is something you told me once."

"So help me I am never speaking in front of you again if all you are going to do is use my words to 'soup up' time turners and act reckless with your life."

"Sirius… something you should know … about my life."

"I don't want to murder you, so save me from the morbidity if you please. If you plan to say something stupid about sacrificing yourself for the greater good I will throttle you."

Sirius got up and poured them both a brandy "You look like you could use something stronger than tea."

"Yeah, it's been a hell of a week."


	4. Hogwarts Express

Chapter 3

"So explain to me again why we are heading to Kings Cross?" Sirius was looking anxious about going out in public, even though his conviction would be eleven years in the past and as far as anyone knew he would be safely serving his sentence in Azkaban.

"We have to make sure Harry gets the right card in his Chocolate Frog pack. It took us forever to figure out who Nicholas Flamel was. A hint earlier would have helped without messing up the timeline. This is the only way to do that without causing extreme interference. Then we need to get in to Hogwarts and set up certain books in the forbidden section." Katu explained this all very carefully one more time.

"And how exactly do you suggest we sneak in to Hogwarts? Unless you have something arranged with Dumbledore?" He had not failed to note the complex emotions that crossed her face at the Headmaster's name. He would have to get that story sometime.

"I suggest we improvise. Now for this to work I have to wrap the chain about both of us." She stepped close to him wrapping one arm around his waist. As her hand skimmed across his back he could feel the warmth of her skin through his t-shirt. He could not say he was completely unaffected and from the light blush across her cheeks as she wrapped the chain about both of them he would guess neither was she. With practiced fingers she turned the dial several times and he felt an odd pulling at his core as they stayed in one place but everything swirled around them seasons changing in the blink of an eye. Everything stopped with a lurch like the sensation of dropping too fast on a broom.

"The place really went to hell in eleven years, didn't it?" remarked Sirius looking about Grimauld Place.

Katu just shrugged. "Kreacher really didn't take good care of it I suppose. Not that I blame him. I wouldn't work that hard for a race that treated my people like slaves either."

Sirius noted her bitterness with interest. "I never really thought about it that way. I suppose you may be right."

She looked at him with a slight frown "I am surprised to hear you say that I always got the impression that you didn't think much of house elves… the way I saw you treat Kreacher…"

"Kreacher is a foul little beast who denied my meals and tormented me at my mother's whim if I failed her in any way. And before you go thinking he did it because he had no choice" Sirius held up his hand when she started to protest "you are absolutely correct. But he also enjoyed it very much. Whatever wizards may have done to him or his kind at five years old being locked in a cupboard without meals for two days for making noise while my mother was napping is hardly fair retribution. So no, I don't care for him at all. But house elves in general? I never really formulated an opinion about them. I was too busy trying not to be crushed by the "Noble House of Black" to give it much thought." He said bitterly.

She really did not know how to respond so she said nothing. "But as long as he is here he may as well make himself useful. Kreacher!" shouted Sirius. The house elf appeared and immediately took offense to Katu's presence. "A filthy mudblood in my mistresses home. What would she think of her poor Kreacher if she knew he allowed such a thing?"

"Hopefully the old bitch knows and is turning over in her grave. This is my guest. You will not use that word again or I will force clothes on you and throw you out in the streets. While we are gone you will clean my room and the kitchen and bath. Have dinner hot and waiting for us."

"Yes Master Sirius, Kreacher lives to serve the most Noble House of Black. The house elf left muttering invectives under his breath about mudbloods and blood traitors. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Thank you for not asking him to clean my room. It was very thoughtful of you." Katu said sincerely.

"You really are an odd bird aren't you? I asked him to clean my room because we will be sharing it." He almost laughed as her eye grew wide. "Don't get your knickers in a bunch, Kitten, there is a comfortable couch in there James uses it… I mean used to use it… when he stayed over. I will take that, you take the bed. You do NOT want to stay by yourself in this house at night after it has been locked up alone in its own madness all this time. Kreacher is the least of the horrors you are likely to find let loose."

Katu remembered the stories the members of the Order told about cleaning the place before she and the other Weasley children were allowed in that summer and nodded her agreement. "Fine but I assure you Sirius I have slept in worse places than on a couch. The bed is yours." He rolled his eyes refusing to debate sleeping arrangements.

"OK, now what? I assume we are not going to just walk right up to the platform?"

"We most certainly are. No one is going to believe you waltzed out of Azkaban with no fanfare looking exactly the same as you did eleven years ago and I look nothing like I did at twelve years old."

"No wonder this assassin leader of yours thought it necessary to instruct you to come back if you ran into trouble. No way would you have thought of that on your own. You are a complete mental case Kitten." She had chosen to ignore his diminutive nickname for her, suspecting if she made an issue out of it he would only use it more often. She had also chosen to ignore the tingling it caused in the pit of her stomach when he used it.

"It is completely logical Sirius; it is how cherub does it. He looks innocent so people assume he is. People only assume you are guilty when you look guilty." She looked him up and down "I am really surprised you got away with anything at Hogwarts you look like sin… I mean guilty as sin." Her flushed look made him want to revisit their sleeping arrangements.

"We need to go, the train will be departing soon" she said looking at her watch.

"Don't we have all the time in the world with your time turner? "

"I thought you didn't trust the magic?"

"I don't trust your definition of 'souped up' as you have not even explained what it is you menat by that."

"Right, time to go."

He glared at her but they left catching the floo to the nearest Kings Cross exit.

He had to admit she was right. No one paid the least bit of attention to them. He heard her whisper "Cherub" and saw a chubby little boy being led by a formidable looking ancient crone of a witch. "THAT is your assassin leader?!"

"Now you know why he is so effective. Not that he didn't grow up very different, but he still has that innocent look about him. The best assassins don't look the part." It was very surreal for her watching the leader of the resistance being dressed down by his grandmother for forgetting one thing or another.

Sirius surprised her by nicking Neville's toad as they walked passed. "Why on earth did you just steal Trevor?!" she hissed at him. He patted the pocket gently he had slipped the toad into "Improvising" he grinned at her wolfishly.

Suddenly he grabbed her and pulled her into an alcove. "There are aurors here, and several of them would be familiar enough with me to be very suspicious."

She pressed him in to the wall with her body "err… what are you doing?" he asked her taken back "Improvising." She snaked one arm around his neck and the other into his jacket and pressed her lips on his intending to make it look like they were two young lovers seeking a bit of privacy. She had meant it to be no more than a stage kiss with no real movement, but Sirius had other ideas. With one hand in her hair he tilted her head back and nibbled on her lips until with a surprised gasp she opened her lips just enough to let him sweep his tongue inside. Surprised by the action and her response to it, Katu let out something between a whimper and a soft moan. It wasn't until she felt his hand under her shirt on her bare skin that she finally remembered where they were and what they were doing.

She put her hands gently on his chest "Sirius" he nibbled on her neck towards her earlobe "hmmm?" she pushed him gently away. "We have work to do." Looking surprised at the position he found himself in he moved away running his hands through his hair "Work… right!"

She moved away from him to pull herself together, but still protected him by placing her body between him and the outside until she was sure no one was lingering that could recognize him. He noticed how she did this without thinking. She kept saying she was no fighter, but she possessed the instincts of one. Who had she been fight alongside and against if she considered herself one of their worst?

"OK, it's safe, but no more risks, we need to blend in, then find a spot get under the cloak and get on the train."

They moved to the back of the train where all of the baggage was an ducked behind several trunks and Katu pulled out the cloak. The cloak was made for one person, but they discovered by getting very close together they could cover both of them. They would have to move carefully but it could be done. It took time but they moved on to the train and found themselves in the luggage car.

"So how will we make sure Harry gets the right card?"

"I just need to find out how many buy chocolate frogs before Harry does. I will watch, count make a quick hop back in time and return to replace the card with the correct one in the correct order."

Sirius stared at her for a long time before finally startling her by shouting "Are you barking MAD?! You intend to perform a time jump on a moving train? You are bloody well going to get yourself injured, or killed!"

 _Shit,_ she though, _he does understand what is going on_ , It was hard to tell with him. "Sirius, I told you, I have been working with this time turner. Souping it up. I can do this."

"Stop fucking saying that. I knew I should have said have made you told me what you meant by that. Do YOU even understand the magical theory behind what you are doing?"

"Yes, I created the theory, so yes, I understand it. You have to trust me."

"No, absolutely not. We will find another way Kitten, like you said, if you die here, this was for nothing."

She sighed "OK what is your brilliant plan?"

"We watch then I create a diversion and you slip the card in. As long as we don't try to leave the train the trolley witch won't get too upset."

"The trolley witch?"

"Yeah, trust me; do NOT try to sneak off of this train."

"OK, but if your plan fails we use the time turner."

"Let's call that Plan C."

With a wave of his wand he changed his appearance slightly to look about four years younger and strolled down the corridors. Katu realized pretty quickly his entire diversionary tactic consisted of attracting teenage girls and making their teenage boyfriends angry. She wasn't sure whether she was angry that this was his whole plan or that it was working. He looked up at her pointedly and cocked an eyebrow at her to get her moving. She snorted and threw the cloak over around her and went to the cabin she knew Harry and Ron would be in and waited for the trolley witch.

Her chest tightened watching the pair talking easily and forming their lifelong friendship. As she recalled her friendship with the pair had not started out so companionably. Slipping the card into the chocolate card pack was easier than she thought it would be. Maybe she had made it far more complicated than it needed to be.

She heard young Neville's voice talking to someone "I just have to find Trevor, Gran will be so upset. His mother was my father's familiar. I can't lose him!" Suddenly she remembered the event and ducked into the cabin across the way just before her younger self appeared around the corner with Neville and approached the cabin with Harry and Ron. She was trying to remain quiet and unnoticed when Sirius slipped in beside her stepping on her cloak and letting out a yelp when her head appeared. "Blimey Kitten I had no Idea you were here! I am trying to escape a couple of very persistent girls!" She put a finger to her lips for him to be quiet and listened to the conversation across the hall.

 _"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope itwill be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"_

 _She said all this very fast._

 _Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either._

 _"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered._

 _"Harry Potter," said Harry._

 _"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark_

 _Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."_

 _"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed._

 _"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what House you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. . . . Anyway, we'd better go and look for Nevill_ e's toad. You two had better change, you know, I _expect we'll be there soon."_

Sirius watched as the young Hermione and Neville made their way down the hall still searching for Neville's toad.

"So, that's your true name? Hermione Granger?"

She shrugged "I haven't gone by that in a very long time. Not since I witnessed my first execution."

She suddenly froze as a young blonde boy walked by with a few others. "I take it you know them?"

"Draco Malfoy" she whispered, clearly not wanting to be heard "We had a… complicated… relationship."

"Son of Lucius Malfoy? Yeah I can imagine 'complicated' doesn't cover the half of it."

"Let's just get to Hogwarts and finish what we came here to this time to finish."


	5. The Diary

Chapter 4

"No, absolutely not. We are not doing that." Sirius was shouting at her nd pacing back and forth.

"Which part?" Katu was very calm not even watching him, just flicking her wand levitating a feather.

"ANY OF IT! And you are barking mad to have thought there was any of this plan I WOULD agree to."

They were back at what they considered "their" time and place. 1992 Grimauld Place.

"I need you; you are the only one who can get me in to Malfoy Manor."

"Then you are screwed because I am not going in to Malfoy Manor, and you are barking mad if you think I am."

"You call me that a lot."

"Because it bloody well fits."

"Sirius be reasonable…"

"REASONABLE! What part of a reasonable plan includes sneaking a cursed book that contains part of a madman's soul into the home of one of his death eaters so it can tell him to sneak it into the belongings of an eleven year old girl for the purpose of doing Merlin knows what because …. Oh do explain that bit to me again?"

"Well, I don't know exactly what will happen; we never found that horcrux in my time, which is part of why I have come back to this time, so we CAN find them all and kill that noseless bastard."

"Noseless? Nevermind I don't care."

"You are all children in this time, how do you plan to do that? Besides I thought we had to stick to the timeline?"

"We do, I don't see how this will change it that much. We just need to drop some hints about the book. Harry's hero complex will cause him to want to save Ginny and we sneak in some horcrux killing tips. The timeline stays largely in tact. If it helps I will even tell Dumbledore what we are doing so if things go south we will have back up."

"I am still doing this under strict protest."

"Noted."

"At the first sign of trouble, we leave and no back talk about it."

"Why do people keep saying that to me?"

"Because you never build an escape clause in to any of your hair brained schemes."

"Escape clauses are for people who fail to plan."

Sirius rolled his eyes.

Getting in to the Malfoy Manor was easy enough. A Narcissa Malfoy's cousin the wards recognized Sirius as family and allowed him safe access. Navigating passages safely with house elves on the prowl was something different altogether.

They made it to a green house safely and stopped to think. Finally Katu said "Ever play poker Sirius?"

He looked at her confused "No.."

"It is a muggle card game that one bets on. Stay here. Be prepared to apparate out at a moment's notice."

"What are you doing?" he hissed.

"Improvising." She stepped out of the green house.

She spotted a house elf. "Find your Master. Show him this." She handed the elf a small bit of parchment. "Tell him I will be waiting for him here."

It was only moments before Lucius Malfoy arrived, angry and with wand drawn "How dare you approach me in my home? How did you get past my wards?"

Katu waited for him to finish his tirade. "I was sent. I have a task for you. There is something that needs tp be delivered to Hogwarts."

"Who are you? I do not take orders from unknown witches who violate my home in the dark. Show me your arm."

"Not all of us who have shown our support had the luxury of doing so openly. And the orders are not mine. Perhaps this will convince you." From her robes and with Malfoy's wand at her throat she withdrew the diary and handed it to him. His eyes grew wide as he recognized it for what it was.

"I… I see. Delivered to Hogwarts you say? My son…"

"No. You are aware that your family is being watched. That the Ministry intends a raid. Draco would be too open. You must find a way to deliver it under the Ministry's very nose. Surely you can think of someone who would be considered above reproach. Who would be innocuous enough and so far beneath anyone's notice that no one would bother searching their belongings."

Malfoy considered the point a moment and then nodded. "Yes… I know of someone. I will have them watched and when I know they will be in Diagon Alley I will arrange my trip accordingly."

"May I at least know the name of our benefactress?"

"My code name is Katu."

He reached out and kissed the back of her knuckles. "The tattoo on the back of your wrist… I am sorry for your loss."

She nodded. "I will take my leave now. If you will be so kind as to remove the wards just long enough for me to do so?" She hoped Sirius was paying enough attention to be ready to go.

Back at Grimauld Place he looked at her amazed "He took you at face value."

"Of course he did. I handed over a very dark artifact. No one but a very dark witch would have that and no one but a very dark witch would have given that to a Death Eater."

"True enough. He said something about your tattoo… I had not noticed it."

She sighed and turned her wrist over. He recognized it immediately. In old pureblood families it was tradition for the bride and groom to get tattooed with one another's blood as part of the wedding ceremony. It bonded their magic. The color of hers marked her as a widow. "I am sorry, I didn't know…"

"It was a couple of years ago."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. Not… not now. We have a job to finish."

At Flourish and Blotts Katu and Sirius Stayed on the second floor looking down watching the entire scene unfold beneath them. He could feel her tense up as her parents walked in to the room. He reached out and took her hand tracing small circles on her palm. Not really one to give or receive comfort she was surprised when this relaxed her.

Lucius noticed her but other than passing his gaze over hers gave no indication he was aware of her presence. Knowing what little she did of him she had to admit to being impressed that he chose to goad Arthur in to a physical altercation in order to insert the book into Ginny's belongings.

"Well, it looks like young Malfoy isn't all bad" Sirius commented beside her.

She was able to gain a different perspective this time. While everyone else was either goading the two men on or trying to break them apart Draco had inserted himself between the fighters and her parents and drawn his wand. The shimmer of magic showed he had cast a shield. He was protecting her parents in case any stray magic was cast their way.

"The book is planted. Let's go." She whirled about and looked for a place to use her time turner.

Sometime later they were back at Grimauld place and Sirius had his wand against her throat.

"You fucking lied to me. You KNEW what the fuck would happen and you LIED TO ME!"

He was furious. They watched while Ginny was slowly possessed by Tom riddle and turned a Basilisk, a fucking BASILISK loose on Hogwarts. Her younger self had been paralyzed. The tiniest first year he had ever seen was attacked, Nearly headless Nick, Filch's old fucking cat even and she had used him the whole time.

"What was I supposed to do Sirius? You never would have helped if I told you what was really going to happen."

"You're damned right I wouldn't. Why did we have to do it anyway? The damned book always ended up in Hogwarts and you knew that! Lucius always put it there what was the entire fucking POINT?!"

"Draco" she whispered

"WHAT?!"

"Draco. He made Draco do it."

"So fucking what?"

"So it was Draco down there and the Basilisk bit him and it didn't kill him because Dumbledore stopped the poison but he was always sick after that. And the Basilisk got him because Harry didn't care about Draco, but Harry never let it get close to Ginny, don't you see?"

"No, I really don't fucking see Hermione," he used her name for the first time ever she noticed "so Draco came away a little worse for wear. So what? Was that worth us nearly getting killed?"

"So when the Snatchers came that day his lungs couldn't keep up any longer. I tried to help but he made me leave. And I wouldn't so Cherub knocked me unconscious and dragged me away. But not Draco because Draco was too heavy and he would never have made it. And then a few days later I went and witnessed my first execution. And the defender "forgot" to ask for speedy and merciful. And so they tortured him to death for three days. Because he was a blood traitor who…." She clasped the tattoo on her wrist and whispered "married a muggleborn."


	6. Planning a Prison Break

**Chapter 5**

Sirius ran his hand through his hair. He had no idea how to approach her. It had been several days since the revelation about her marriage to and the subsequent death of Draco Malfoy.

What does one even say to that? It is not like there was a card that said "Hey sorry your husband was tortured for three days and then murdered in front of you, but buck up, things are always darkest before the blah blah blah"

She went on planning just like before. Nothing changed in her. Not one fucking thing. That was the most horrifying part for him. His entire perception of her had changed and she went on as if it were bloody normal to reveal something like that. What kind of fucked up world had she come from? He had a sinking feeling this would not be the last time he asked that question.

"So… what's the plan?"

"The next part is going to be rough; you "escape" from Azkaban."

"No one bloody escapes from Azkaban, just how do I accomplish this? Especially since I have never set foot in the place?"

"I have a cover story but first we have to assassinate your double, that is not going to be easy, Dementors cannot be fooled by invisibility cloaks."

"So…?"

"So I need to get into Azkaban during a time when there are no Dementors and move forward in his cell to a time when he will be there, move back to the time when there are none, which will make it look as though he has escaped kill him and come back."

She sounded so matter of fact about this whole assassination thing "Merlin… you.. you say you were not the assassin of your group?"

"Bloody hell no, this is as sloppy a plan as they come. Cherub would be ashamed."

"I … see. Then what? What is the story?"

"You became so thin and emaciated that when you slipped in to your animagus form you could skip through the bars and swim the North Sea to freedom."

"That is.. wait, I have never… how did you know?"

"That you are an animagus? I told you I knew you from before, Sirius, I have seen you as Snuffles many many times."

"SNUFFLES?!"

She shrugged "You pose as a pet you get a pet's name, blame Harry."

He shook his head "the rest is still ridiculous, it would never work. They would still sense me, and they would have broke my mind by stealing my happy thoughts, well all of my emotions really, it is how they keep you from escaping they break your will."

She looked at him with genuine compassion, this look scared the shit out of him for some reason "Sirius… this is exactly how you did escape… and by that time you didn't really have any real pleasant thoughts left they couldn't steal all of your thoughts though, you had one left, because you knew you were innocent, except it didn't make you happy… because James and Lilly were still … anyway, that's how you explained it to us when you told us you had persuaded James to let Peter be the secret keeper instead the same night that he sold them out to Voldemort."

He just stared at her in amazement. He had accused her of being a spy, it turned out she hadn't needed to, clearly he had been quite happy to spill everything to her.

"Wow" he smirked to ease the sudden tension in the room "turns out I am kind of a badass."

She looked at him in surprise but he would swear her lips twitched before she turned away.

"The real trouble comes from the fact that you have to BE here. And on a pretty permenant basis. For almost two years. I hate the whole idea. I really don't want to be tied down. Plus I will have to wear a disguise and take on a whole new identity. And I am really not thrilled with the idea of the commitment that will take."

"Doesn't that break the whole "don't see yourself" clause?"

"Only if I intended to see myself, which I don't, I have work to do, this is a big place and it will be your job to keep them away from me. There were always a few areas we couldn't get in to, so we will have to use one."

"That is a big no. There are reasons you could not get it. They are dangerous and I doubt they got any safer or saner locked up with nothing but Kreacher. But I do have an idea, follow me."

They went upstairs to his rooms. What she had assumed to be a closet in his bathroom turned out to be another huge suite of rooms.

"Wow… why would anyone need two suites of rooms?"

He leaned against the door frame "It used to be considered incredibly tacky for husbands and wives to share a bedroom. This was some Black wife's suite at some point."

She frowned puzzled "How do you know it was the wife's suite?"

He waved an arm around "No door leading outside of this room to the rest of the house."

She rolled her eyes "Charming."

He shrugged "Now you know why I spent so much time with the Potters. But this will solve the problem of where you can stay while there are others in the house quite nicely. No one can get to you unless they go through me."

She did not want to examine too closely why this gave her a warm feeling. She was still supposed to be mourning her dead husband, wasn't she?

She started using her wand to clean up the room and rid the place of doxies.

"You know I can get Kreacher to do that."

"No thank you. But if you could help me put in a stove and refridgerator that would be great."

"No problem, but we DO have a problem."

"Oh? What would that be?"

"I don't look like a man who spent twelve years in Azkaban."

He could not interpret the look on her face "About that…"


	7. Growing Frustrations

**Hello dear readers, thought I would update this chapter for fun. I just got a lovely review from someone who thinks they are just too clever for words. People who pick apart typos grammar and spelling errors fall in to one of two categories. those who want to impress the rest of us with how terribly clever they are and English teachers and professional readers. The latter can be excused, it is after their professions. The former are frankly, a bore. the type who clearly cannot be bothered to read my profile where I have asked you not to waste either of our time with that drivel. If I wanted proofreaders I would hire them. In fact I do. I want those who take their time to enjoy (or not, I am not foolish enough to believe I am universally beloved) and leave an honest commentary.**

 **If your only comment is I misspelled Avada Kedavra you need a new hobby.**

 **I usually go back and fix typos and errors at some point. I am leaving these just to annoy this one person for my personal amusement.**

 **Chapter 6**

"I have to say kitten I aged well." He had a hard time interpreting the look she gave him. Or the blush that accompanied it. It only lasted a moment before she turned and went back to her work.

She hands him a list.

"What is this?" He looks back at her confused.

"You spent a few days stalking Harry scaring the crap out of him." She didn't look up.

"I… what?" he looked at her confused. Why wasn't she looking at him?

"Don't ask me. I just know he kept seeing a big black dog that he thought was a grim. Turned out it was you. So go on, scare the crap out of your godson while I work."

"Are you angry with me about something?" he was going over their last several encounter trying to figure out just how he had offended her.

"No Sirius, I am just tired. I have been running nonstop. I just… no I am not angry. Please just go. I will get some rest."

"Ok…" with that he left.

It was about time he left too. She forgot what a crush she had on him when she was a girl. Couple that with how confused she had been because he was bloody hot normally and how exhausted she was and voiding him seemed her only real option. Maybe she should have made up a story about how she was angry about something.

A few days later he came back to find her sound asleep on the couch. He was surprised at how much she had changed in the time they had been together. With regular sleep and meals she had filled out and the bags under her eyes had gone. Her hair had grown out some, it was almost to her shoulders. She looked young and innocent but the eye patch still gave her a rakish look.

Kneeling beside her he rubbed the back of his hand down her cheek yo wake her up. She immediately grabbed his wrist reaching for her wand. Seeing it was him she stilled but still had a hold of his wrist.

"Hey" he said softly "I'm back."

"So I see, how did it go?" she loosened her grip but did not let go.

"He has grown so much. He looks just like James. Except his eyes."

"He has his mother's eyes" she said.

"Yeah…" he rubbed her cheek with his thumb "hungry?"

"I could use some tea. I'll make it, you have been out all night."

"I wouldn't say no to an egg sandwich too." He said softly.

"You got it." He pulled her up from the couch gently but she was still unsteady on her feet and fell against his chest, he couldn't help notice how her cheeks flushed when she did.

He was starting to guess why she had been avoiding him when he could feel her pulse quicken and her breath speed up just before she pushed herself off of him.

Well damned.

After dinner they sat on the couch reading quietly until he heard her quietly snoring. Shaking his head with a little laugh he scooped her up trying to ignore how good it felt when she tucked her cheek into neck.

He carried her up to his room and started to place her on the couch where she had been sleeping entirely at her insistence but decided she deserved a decent night's sleep and placed her in the bed. Pulling off her jeans leaving her in her t-shirt he pulled off his jeans and t-shirt leaving on his boxers and crawled in to bed next to her and fell asleep at once.

He woke up some time very late at night or very early in the morning, it was impossible to tell with her wrapped around him. Her face pressed against his shoulder her breasts pressed against his chest and her leg thrown over his thighs. His hand had been cupping her ass and pulling her closer when he woke up.

He absolutely had to put a stop to this. No way was he going to molest this woman in her sleep no matter how tempting it was. Accidentally copping a feel in his sleep was one thing. Completely forgivable. He was wide awake now.

Gritting his teeth he disentangled her and gently rolled her over to her own side.

This woman was going to be the death of him. But by Merlin she would come to his bed willingly or not at all. And not bloody well in her sleep.

Morals were not nearly as fun in practice as they were in theory.

He was up before she was dressed with breakfast made and trying not to be a complete and utter ass based on sexual frustration. He thought he did am admirable job.

She couldn't figure out what his problem was.

That night they finally had a few minutes to breath and relax. They decided to celebrate with firewhiskey.

A few drinks in he finally got up the nerve to ask her "So why have you been so stand offish the past few days?"

"I told you I have been tired and out of sorts. Why have you been such an ass all day?" she handed her glass over to be refilled.

"I wasn't aware I had been. Guess I was just… frustrated…" he filled her glass but didn't meet her eyes.

She laughed "Yeah… you have no idea what frustration is."

He sneered "Work got you down?"

"Not exactly no" she stared in to the fire.

"Yeah I know, YOU never have problems, you are the perfect model of cold brutality. No one and nothing touches you." He knew it was mean but he was drunk and frustrated and frankly horny as hell, and the woman was making him daft.

She sighed and stared into her glass swirling the amber liquid around. "Right… well, as enlightening as this has been, I have a long day of being an perfect model of cold brutality tomorrow and so I am off to bed."

He hated how she didn't even sound angry. Just resigned. And he refused to believe she sounded hurt. It must be the alcohol affecting his ability to hear straight. And he tried not to read too much in to how bright her eyes were or how he couldn't get her to look at him.

After about twenty minutes of nursing his drink he knew he had to go upstairs and make it right with her. It wasn't her fault he was frustrated. He was reasonably sure she wasn't purposefully trying to drive him crazy. He had to try to remember she was probably still grieving her husband. The more he thought about it the more of an ass he felt.

When he went up stairs to their room (when had it become their room he wondered) he could hear her talking to herself.

"I don't know about frustration? Stupid man. Trapped in a house with a guy I had a crush on as a girl who suddenly way younger and got way hotter then suddenly looked exactly like he did when I was younger and whole? Bastard. I hope whatever he is frustrated by is ten times worse."

He grinned. So she wasn't completely unaffected after all.

He opened the doo just as a hairbrush crashed next to his head.

"Whoa Kitten, you could seriously injure someone like that!"

He stopped short both of them staring at each other in shock. She had clearly just come from the bath. She was wrapped in a towel and it was clear it was all she was wearing. And she had filled out a hell of a lot more than he had thought since she had first arrived. The towel left very little to the imagination and he had a very good imagination.


	8. Frustration Managed

**Chapter 7**

She sneered at him, completely comfortable, he noticed, with the fact that she was nearly naked in front of him. "What do you want Sirius? Come to see if I will actually hex you in to oblivion? Because that is not a wager I would make at the moment?"

"Actually, I came up here to apologize." He said, trying very hard to picture Dumbledore in a bikini.

"Apologize for what precisely?" she asked crossing her arms under her breasts.

"Well, I have it under good authority that I am stupid." He said with a grin leaning against the door. He could not help but notice her new posture made her breasts stand up far more prominently.

This woman was going to be the death of him. He had come up here to apologize but right now a lengthy conversation was the furthest thing from his mind.

"Excuse me if I doubt the sincerity of your contrition." she turned giving him a very nice view of her long legs. The towel stopped just beneath her bum.

"I have also been told from this same authority figure that I am a bit of an arse." He leaned casually against the door frame.

"I doubt anyone anywhere has ever said you were a "bit" of an arse." Katu snorted.

"I also may have heard that I am an annoying git."

"Also a true statement."

"I am probably a mean drunk."

"Not hearing an apology in any of this, Sirius, just a lot of factual statements." She bent over next to him and picked up her hair brush. When she did so the side of the towel gaped open to reveal her full naked leg and the side of her bum. He had to stifle a groan.

He watched her walk over to the mirror at the dresser and start dragging the brush through her hair, she had charmed the thing to dry as it smoothed her tresses. He noticed her hair was getting long enough to begin to curl reached just past her shoulders.

Pushing away from the door frame he came to stand behind her taking the brush from her and pulling it through her hair in the back, trying not to study why his heart clenched that she allowed this bit of intimacy.

"You did not let me finish. I said I had come up here to apologize. I changed my mind when I got up here." He laid her brush on the dresser now that her hair was dried and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Oh, and exactly why would you change your mind? Did you suddenly decide you were not an arse after all?" she sneered at him in the mirror, but she did not shrug his hands off.

"Oh, I am definitely an arse, and stupid, And a damned mean drunk." She snorted. "But I am also frustrated. And frustrating. And unless you hex me, I intend to do something about both."

Her eye widened slightly at his words, but when she didn't say anything, he spun her around and pressed his lips to hers. It took a moment before she began to respond, but when she did opening her lips with a sigh he deepened the kiss and swept her up in his arms depositing her in the center of his bed.

Before the moon went down neither one of them were frustrated any longer.

He was still an arse though.

The next morning he reached out to pull her back to him thinking about a quick round before breakfast. Or maybe not so quick he grinned, but her side of the bed was empty.

He pulled on a pair of sweat pants and went downstairs to find her find her. He knew she would likely be in the kitchen over a cup of strong hot tea. She was pretty predictable that way.

He was right, she was down there but this time she was sining a song he was unfamiliar with.

 _"After my picture fades and darkness has turned to gray_

 _Watching through windows, you're wondering if I'm OK_

 _Secrets stolen from deep inside_

 _The drum beats out of time_

 _If you're lost, you can look and you will find me_

 _Time after time_

 _If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting_

 _Time after time"_

It took a few minutes of listening to her before he realized tears were streaming down her face.

He gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "What is it Kitten? What's wrong?"

"I never should have… we shouldn't have…" she sobbed "I took advantage of you…"

He was surprised and confused "I am pretty sure you did no such thing, first, I initiated what we did, second, I would have been very happy if _you_ had initiated what we did."

"That is because you don't understand…" she said sitting down at the table.

He kneeled in front of her "Understand what Kitten, tell me."

"When we succeed… my time won't exist any longer... I won't exist any longer. When Voldemort is dead I…" she stopped and looked at him helplessly.

"You die…" he said horrified.

"No… I will still be alive… just not this version of me… this version of me will simply never have existed." She buried her face in her hands.

Sirius throat constricted, he just realized how important she was to him and now he knew he was going to lose her "Is there something we can do?"

"Yes" she said "we can go back to the way things were. As wonderful as last night was… it can never happen again."


	9. Newt Level Idiot

**Chapter 8**

"Sirius Black you are a Newt Level idiot" Katu shouted at him staring at the hippogriff on the roof. The literal, not figurative, as in, "Let's discuss the hippogriff in the room" hippogriff on the fucking roof.

"So I have been told." He drawled.

"Let's go over this again, you decided in your infinite wisdom that you would just go after Peter Pettigrew on your own? Because that worked out so well last time?"

"That would be an accurate statement yes." Bastard sounded not the least bit sorry.

"And now we are the custodians of a full grown hippogriff?" he had the audacity to smile.

"That is also a true statement." She rubbed the bridge of her nose. She had the sudden urge to apologize to Cherub.

It had started out as such a simple assignment. Nothing to go wrong. Make a few appearances. Show himself to have escaped. Make a few appearances as Sirius Black, lead them away from Grimauld Place, give Dumbledore the passwords to get in and use the place for the Order and get back. So how did they get from there to an attack by a full grown werewolf and a near dementor's kiss and nearly getting Harry kissed or killed in the process?

The answers to those questions and many more were two words. Sirius Fucking Black. OK, three words.

He had gone to Hogwarts while she had worked on her alternate identity Mafalda Hopkirk, ordinary ministry worker, improper use of magic, the real Mafalda had moved to the United States after eloping the previous year and no one would be the wiser as no one knew what she looked like. A simple restorative spell to cosmetically replace an eye in her socket, nothing could replace the vision in the eye lost to dark magic, a transfiguration spell and voila, one petite adorable blonde late stood in Katu's place.

As she waited for Sirius to return the hour grew later and later. The time for him to return came and went. Finally she knew something had gone wrong. Grabbing her bag and wand she apparated to Hogsmeade. The fear gripped her as she saw the dementors hovering over the place.

The Shrieking Shack, no way should that place be lit up the way it was. Hurrying t it. She was surprised to see Lupin, Sirius, Harry, herself, Ron and… Peter Pettigrew... of course, freaking Peter, damned Sirius… that is what this was all about…

Something was wrong… Oh lord… the moon… it was full… LUPIN! He was going to change… Sirius changed with him. Watching in horror she watched as the two fought. There was no way Sirius could fight off a full grown werewolf. She could hear a howl in the distance. It was clearly a human voice making the sound, but it was enough to confuse Lupin. He stopped and started towards the voice, whoever that was, they were going to be in danger… taking up the call, she drew him towards her. Using the time turner, she kept up the call drawing him further and further away.

Finally she ended up at the lake in time to see Sirius and Harry nearly dead from the Dementor attack.

Running forward she was amazed to see a fully corporeal patronus attack the Dementors. Across the lake she could see the form of Harry Potter, wand out.

They HAD managed to change the timeline! Smiling to herself she apparated back to the safe house to wait for the Wizard Who Must Not Be Left To His Own Devices to come home.

She sat down hard on the ledge of the roof. "So what do you suggest we DO with a full grown hippogriff, Sirius? He is NOT a kneazel! We cannot set up a basket in the corner of the room and set out a saucer of milk!"

"I suggest we return him to the forest." He grinned, as if it were the most obvious solution in the world. She wanted to punch him.

"Wait" she said looking up "is that… Buckbeak?" she suddenly stood.

Buckbeak came over and nudged her. "I don't have any..." Sirius tossed a dead ferret to her. Feeding it to the hippogriff she said "OK, I am very glad McNair did not execute you." She would have sworn the animal rolled his eyes at her. "But that does not say how we are going to…"

Sirius looked at her pointedly "Oh no, I am NOT flying him there. I do NOT fly Sirius. YOU got him here. YOU fly him back. I don't care how you do it. Transfigure yourself into a feather. A teacup. A mouse. I don't care what you do so long as it is YOU and not ME on his back. There is NO way I am going to be doing any such thing. I am very fond of you Beaky. I really Am. And you know how fond I am of Hagrid. But I don't fly. Not on brooms, not on hippogriffs. Not in airplanes. Not for any reason. You wouldn't even want me to. I am quite certain I would vomit. You would spend days trying to get the smell out of your wings. Just imagine it."

She was still giving all of her reasons for refusing to do so an hour later as she was flying over Hogsmeade with Buckbeak on their way to the forest. She apparated back from Hogsmeade to the front of Grimauld Place cursing Sirius the entire time.


	10. Hermione and Kreacher

**Chapter 9**

She was deciding exactly how many ways she could creatively torture Sirius and get away with it in a houseful of Order of the Phoenix Members after the Buckbeak stunt. Stinging hexes, itching powders with a sticking charm in his trousers. All manner of thoughts came to mind as she continued to scrub her room.

Kreacher came by once in awhile to glower at her and murmur racial slurs. Finally when she had enough she bent over at the knees and looked him in the eye "I could ask Sirius to order you to do what I say. Them I could order you to burn down just the wall with Walburga's portrait on it." He opened his eyes wide. This threat enough to silence him. "Do you know why I do not?"

He looked at her a long time and then sneered "Because the mudblood is afraid!"

"Look at me closely Kreacher. Does it look like I am afraid of anything? I have been tortured, abused in ways you cannot even imagine. Purebloods would never risk soiling their bodies with a mudblood's but that doesn't mean they can't make you believe it is happening. And when it isn't really occurring, it can last for hours, or even days, unlike a human body which gives out in minutes."

Even the house elf looked taken back by the implications of what she was saying.

"I watched my best friends die and my husband tortured to death over days. I ask again. Do I look like I fear you or anything this house has to offer?"

The little elf shook his head. "Then why do you not do so?" he finally asked.

"Because you did not ask for the circumstances of your birth any more than I did. You did not ask to become the play thing of some demented pureblood anymore than I did. And if taking your pain out on me by calling me every name you can think of. By shrieking it by hammering your fists against the walls eases your pain at all, then I am willing to take that for you."

The elf shrank back as though he had been struck.

"Here" she said holding out a locket on a small chain "I know you would have liked to have had this back in my world, I never got a chance to give it to you. I know Regulas would have wanted you to have it.

Kreacher reached out carefully and took the fake locket carefully in his hands looking up at her with wide eyes, neither of them speaking. Finally Kreacher disaparated without taking his eyes from hers.

Looking up she was surprised to see Sirius leaning casually against his doorframe watching her with a strange expression on his face. "What?"

"You… never told me about any of that other stuff that happened during the war…" he said with a frown.

"I am covered in scars from head to foot and missing an eye. I hadn't slept or eaten in three or four days before I got here. What did you _think_ my life had been like Sirius?" she said with exasperation.

"But to make you think you had been… for days?" he could not even say the words.

"Yeah well… the mind is not encumbered by physical limitations. I am certain there are death eaters who got off on that sort of thing but the ones I had been caught by were a different sort of sadist." She said fingering her eye patch.

"Who were they?" he asked menacingly.

She had no doubt he would go out and handle it true marauder style. It was one of those things she had always… "No one important. Nott, Malfoy…"

"Your husband?!" He asked horrified.

"Senior. It was when I had been captured in his home. They had some sort of time distortion spell up, what seemed like hours to the others was days for me." Her eyes were far away "Nott cast a curse at me as I left. That is how I lost my eye. Bastard got the worst of it. I lost my eye, he lost his life." She smiled bitterly.

Both were silent for a time startled back to reality when they heard a loud "pop!"

Kreacher was standing there with armloads of linens without a word he changed the sheets on her bed and left.

Sirius raised an eyebrow "That must have been some locket my brother had, what does it do? Cast an Imperius on house elves?"

"It was a fake horcrux. Regulas replaced it for the real one when he betrayed Voldemort." Katu realized the impact of what she said when Sirius went completely pale.

"He… he did what?" Sirius stumbled over to the bed and sat down hard.

Katu went over and stood next to him not quite knowing what to do or say. "It was one of the few we found on our own after Harry… Dumbledore sent Draco and I after it. It was… awful… I don't know how Regulas could stand it. He must have been so brave. But he got the locket and replaced it with a fake. He gave the real one to Kreacher to destroy but Kreacher was never able to. Voldemort knew he was a traitor and killed him shortly after."

Sirius buried his face in his hands. " We thought he was a supporter of You Know Who until the end. We had no idea he had… if I had known I could have protected him I could have…"

Katu kneeled down in front of him and gently pulled his hands from his face "Sirius look at me" she commanded quietly. When he finally did she said "You know that isn't true. Look at Lily and James. Look at Harry." He flinched. "When Voldemort decided to kill them, he just… did. There was nothing you could have done that would have saved him. All you could have done was to get yourself killed as well."

"So you are saying there is nothing we can do? We just lose anyone he wants dead?" He looked so defeated she put her arms around him. After a moment he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close.

"Not at all. There is one thing we can do. We can kill the bastard."


	11. The News Article

"Kat!? KAT!" Sirius was shouting for her throughout the manor. Merlin but that man had a set of lungs on him when he chose to use them.

Wiping her hands on her apron Katu stepped to the top of the stairs just in time to see Sirius marching up them with a copy of the Daily Prophet in hand.

"Did you know about this!?" He shouted waving the paper under her nose.

"Did I know newspapers exist? Yes, do I know what the contents of this paper are? No, and I won't unless you quit waving it under my nose and hand it to me!" Sirius let go of the paper when she took it from him.

Rita Skeeter Interviews Harry Potter.

The headlines screamed.

"He's choking back tears..."

—Rita Skeeter[src]

I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now...Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I'm not ashamed to admit it...I know nothing will hurt me during the tournament, because they're watching over me..." Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school.

"Ugggghhh. _This_ article." Katu sneered. "Rita Skeeter is a horrible woman, went over to the dark side of course, as soon as…"

"I don't give a damned about Rita Skeeter!" Sirius shouted "How did Harry wind up in the Tri-Wizard Tournament? He is only fourteen. That tournament will kill him!"

"Killing him was certainly _one_ of the purposes…" Katu acknowledged.

"And we are supposed to stand by and watch it happen!?" Sirius was working himself in to a state.

"No, Sirius, we are supposed to cheat. I thought we had established that was why I came back. To cheat Voldemort out of the future I lived through." She shook her head at him in disbelief "And I thought as one of the famed Marauders, you might get on board with that. Since following rules was never something the four of you ever managed."

That certainly took the wind out of his sails "I… oh, of course." He looked somewhat surprised. "How are we going to accomplish cheating?"

"Well, first of all we are going to help Harry get to the end faster than anyone else and better. He has an appointment to keep at the end of the tournament."

"Appointment? What kind? With whom?" Sirius had continued to look after Harry and chat with him by owl every chance he got now that Harry knew he existed and was not happy to stand idly by. He wanted answers.

"With Voldemort." Katu held up her hand before Sirius could go in to a rage.

"It is necessary," she continued "we can't kill him if he doesn't have a full body. And he will only come back elsewhere when if we don't control this now."

"You mean Voldemort" he still shuddered a bit at the name she noticed "will be resurrected during this tournament."

"Yes, I don't know exactly how it was all done, Harry didn't like to talk about it, but I know he saw Lily and James that night."

Sirius startled "How? They are… gone."

"I don't have all of the answers, Sirius, I am sorry." She looked down at the floor.

"Then what good are you!?" he raged "You did not stop what happened to Lily and James and now you aren't going to stop Voldemort from rising." He knew he was being unfair, but the thought of Harry in the clutches of that psychopath…

Katu sighed "I… don't know. I am sorry."

With that she walked back to her room defeated.

"Damned it…" Sirius murmured after he had calmed down a minute. "I have really got to stop blaming her for everything that happened."

Feeling like a complete arsehole he climbed the stairs like a condemned man and went to her room.

She had continued scrubbing and setting up her room. Kreacher was actively assisting her at this point, although he rarely spoke to her.

Sirius stood in the doorway shifting his weight from one foot to the other not certain how to begin.

Kreacher, with an armload of small comforts and knickknacks brushed past Sirius, and in an odd show of solidarity with Katu mumbled and glared at him the entire time.

Shaking his head at how quickly the witch had gained the little elf's loyalty Sirius finally spoke up.

"Kitten, I am sorry. I should not have taken my fears and frustrations out on you like that." He was nonplussed by the fact that she did not turn around.

"It is fine, Sirius." She said quietly. Without looking she reached down and handed Kreacher a jar full of doxies that she had cleaned out of her drapes.

He hated the choking quality her voice had. Was she crying? It seemed so out of character for the woman he knew.

Impulsively he blurted out "Let me make it up to you, let me take you to my summer house. We can relax a bit, Nothing will be happening at Hogwarts for a bit."

She shrugged and nodded. "That sounds lovely Sirius, thank you."

He hated the overly polite quality her tone had taken on, but it was a start.


	12. International Fan Day

AO3 is hosting IFD events. One allows you to win prizes for recommending three stories. While of course I would love one of mine to be in there, getting involved is the main thing

International Fan Day Rec.s CLICK HERE

archiveofourownDOTorg/admin_posts/9774?show_comments=true&view_full_work=false#comment_150051888


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